4 Tech Stocks to Trade (or Not)

BALTIMORE ( Stockpickr) -- Put down the 10-K filings and the stock screeners. It's time to take a break from the traditional methods of generating investment ideas. Instead, let the crowd do it for you.

From hedge funds to individual investors, scores of market participants are turning to social media to figure out which stocks are worth watching. It's a concept that's known as "crowdsourcing," and it uses the masses to identify emerging trends in the market.

Crowdsourcing has long been a popular tool for the advertising industry, but it also makes a lot of sense as an investment tool. After all, the market is completely driven by the supply and demand, so it can be valuable to see what names are trending among the crowd.

While some fund managers are already trying to leverage social media resources like Twitter to find algorithmic trading opportunities, for most investors, crowdsourcing works best as a starting point for investors who want a starting point in their analysis. Today, we'll leverage the power of the crowd to take a look at some of the most active stocks on the market today.

These "most active" names are the most heavily-traded names on the market -- and often, uber-active names have some sort of a technical or fundamental catalyst driving investors' attention on shares. That's especially true now that earnings season is officially underway. And when there's a big catalyst, there's often a trading opportunity.

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It shouldn't come as a big surprise that handset maker Nokia ( NOK) is trading on high volume this afternoon -- the firm has been one of the most heavily-traded names on the NYSE ever since the announcement that Microsoft ( MSFT) was buying its handset unit and licensing patents and mapping services for $7.2 billion. The news takes Nokia's least-profitable (and most public) business off of the firm -- and puts it on Microsoft instead.

It's no surprise then that shares of NOK rallied to new highs on the acquisition news. Making new highs is significant from an investor psychology standpoint because it means that everyone who has bought shares in the last year is sitting on gains. As a result, the "back to even" mentality is less of a concern than it would be for a name with a higher proportion of shareholders sitting on losses. Investors who aren't risk-averse may want to consider jumping in here; just keep a tight stop in place.

BlackBerry

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Another cell phone stock on today's list is BlackBerry ( BBRY). The volatile cell phone stock is getting bid up on big volume after management announced the firm's plan to sell itself by November. BBRY has been hinting at pursuing "strategic alternatives" (investment bank parlance for a sale) for a while now, but the November deadline gives traders a very short-term target to focus on.

From a technical standpoint, BBRY looks attractive right now. Shares have been forming a rounding bottom pattern for about a month, signaling a gradual transition of control of shares from sellers to buyers. Resistance is currently in place at $11.50. If BBRY can hold a bid above $11.50, then we've got an indication that buyers have swept control. Wait for $11.50 to get busted though before buying BlackBerry.

Himax Technologies

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Shares of semiconductor stock Himax Technologies ( HIMX) are up 8% this afternoon, following a bullish note from Craig-Hallum that argued for a big increase in Himax's LCOS microdisplay business. The mini displays are a notable part of Google's ( GOOG) Glass headgear, one of the most exciting products coming out of Silicon Valley right now.

But forget about the long-term growth runways at HIMX for a minute. This stock's technicals look ready to run now.

HIMX has been consolidating for the summer in a bullish setup called an ascending triangle. Resistance for the pattern comes in at $7.75, a price that's getting tested in today's session. If HIMX can hold above that $7.75 level into tomorrow's open, it makes sense to be a buyer.

Broadcom

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The tailwind of a big acquisition and analyst upgrade are helping Broadcom ( BRCM) rally today: Asian investment group CLSA penned a bullish note on BRCM after the firm announced the purchase of $164 million in 4G LTE assets from Renesas. Shares of Broadcom are up 2.6% on high volume in today's session as a result.

Broadcom looks "bottomy" right now. The chipmaker has shown investors some sickening performance this summer, falling hard on the heels of its July earnings call. But a rounding bottom in this stock spells the potential to regain much of that lost ground. Resistance at $27 is the level to watch right now; if BRCM can push through $27, buying shares becomes a high-probability trade.

At the time of publication, author had no positions in stocks mentioned.

Jonas Elmerraji, CMT, is a senior market analyst at Agora Financial in Baltimore and a contributor to TheStreet. Before that, he managed a portfolio of stocks for an investment advisory returned 15% in 2008. He has been featured in Forbes , Investor's Business Daily, and on CNBC.com. Jonas holds a degree in financial economics from UMBC and the Chartered Market Technician designation.